I have always enjoyed learning about sunken ships. As a
hobby I enjoy researching and glancing over photos of lost and abandoned
wrecks. When I look at the pictures I get the same creepy feeling craw up my
spine as when I see a haunted house in a horror movie. It’s shocking and scary,
but you can’t help but want to explore inside it and learn its secrets. Just
like a haunted house, many shipwrecks tend to have tragic backstories. Usually
resulting in the loss of many human lives. However before the grim reaper
boarded for a last voyage, many sea fearing vessels have fantastic stories of
triumph that make them proud symbols for the nation they represented. One of my
favorite examples of this is the story of the WWII battleship Bismarck which
wreck is pictured above.
This fascination of mine probably
all started when I was a youngster. I use to visit and stayed over at my
grandparents’ house a lot. My grandfather was in the navy during WWII and for a
gift on ether a birthday or Christmas one year, my grandfather received two
national geographic documentaries. One on the discovery of the Titanic, The
other the search for the battleship Bismarck. I watched these two documentaries
at least a hundred times, and I still enjoy watching them today as an adult.
A
little back story for those who have never heard of the Bismarck. During WWII
naval power was one of the key elements of warfare. The German Axes powers had
control over much ground, spreading throughout Europe and parts of Africa.
Great Britton however still maintained an advantage with their navy. Seeing
that naval superiority was a definite contributing factor in fighting there
allied counterparts. Hitler himself ordered a battleship to be commissioned
that would take the rule of the waves away from Britania. She would be the
biggest, most heavily gunned, and strongest armored of any ship built before
her. To quote the film maker James Cameron “The Bismarck was like the Deathstar
of her day”. Once built it was immediately put into service. Her original
orders were to head through the Denmark Strait and into open Atlantic being
undetected. Then attack and sink allied cargo ships making their way to deliver
supplies to Great Britain. After successfully making it to the Atlantic she
encountered the British battleship “Hood” sinking it within only a few minutes,
losing all but 3 of her crew. Winston Churchill ordered all battleships and
aircraft carriers that the most important thing for them was to find the
Bismarck and sink it. The Bismarck proved to be very allusive for her sizes. On
an overcast day a small allied aerial photography plain spotted a grey shape
below the clouds and snapped a picture. It was their German target, but no
ships were within range to catch up with it. Only one aircraft carrier was
close enough to be able to send out small one torpedo plains to try and slow
Bismarck down. In the following flight only one torpedo was able to strike the
Bismarck, jamming its Rutter. Now the ship could only make a huge circle. The
allies’ then advanced on the wounded ship in huge numbers the idea being to
corner and out gun. The Battle became a bloodbath, the allies riddling the
Bismarck’s decks with shellfire. The Bismarck’s crew did fight back but was so
outnumbered it was hard to think of anyway it could have escaped or won. She
eventually succumbed and sank taking many crew members down with her. After the
Bismarck sank there are many stories of heroisms and bravery. Many British
ships picked up surviving German sailors. Sadly they also had to leave many
behind due to the spotting of German U-bots heading in there direction.
Being
that I know the story this hulk resting on the bottom of the ocean floor tells,
may be one of the resins why I like this picture.
I bring
no joy in saying that I see the Contrast most in the swastika symbol that still
adorns the bow and stern of the ship. Unlike the rest of the hull it is surrounded
by a white circle that seems un-natural. It tends to stick out compared to the damaged
and rusting metal of the rest of the ship, causing your eye to be drawn right
to it. Another contrast is the shape of the ship itself sticking out from the
sea bed. It looks like a step that rises up to a flatter surface then back down
again. On the decks all of the details that come in the form of craters and
mountains that once held huge turret guns and the conning tower. They are only
seen by the shadow that is cast to fill in the holes. It reminds me of looking
at creators in the moon. You can get a sense just looking at this picture what
the terrain of the ship would be like if you were there to see it in person.
Balance
to me is the in looking at the shape of the ship. If you look at the top surface
it makes a triangle shape, with the high point being were the bridge is and following
the line down to both the stern and bow. It is also balanced the way how the
ship is sitting upright. Even though most of the hull is buried up the almost
the top deck, it makes it seem secured and cemented into the bottom. Since it
is sitting upright you can see how it looked still afloat. It has a long deck
with all of its busy parts set in the middle like an archery bow riser
connected to the limbs.
Harmony.
It looks like it belongs there, embracing the roll of the fabled ghost ship.
The holes and lines feel like they have become part of the landscape that makes
up the bottom of the sea. Like ancient ruins nature has started to form a
partnership with the manmade object. Under 3 miles of ocean it is hard to make
out what difference the color of the ship is compared to the earth.
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